The reason i have a lot of respect for K2, (Solomon too) is that they literally have TWICE the r&d (technically speaking) of any other company out there. All the technology and data that comes from their ski line goes into their clothing, haha no, their snowboard lines and vice versa. So basically all this research and experience doubles the amount of tech that they can actually out into their boards...

take the zeppelin for example (or a few others). They have these torsion forks and length running carbon strips for rigidity, pop, holding power, damping, edge holding, ect. Pretty cool stuff. So not technically crap but there are also a lot of other brands too...